Stranger on Grimmauld Place
by Shiny IvyLeaves
Summary: Harry Potter/Doctor Who crossover. When a mysterious blue box appears dangerously close to Twelve Grimmauld Place, Sirius finds himself faced with something he never expected. ON HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own neither Doctor Who nor Harry Potter. I am only playing around with the characters for a bit.**

**This is something that I wrote for English the other day, and I figured I'd post it. Not entirely sure if I'll continue it, though... opinions?**

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><p>A gentle breeze wafted over the black pavement of the street. To a mere bystander the houses that lined the road would appear all but abandoned on the bright summer's day, but one with the knowledge would be able to see the silhouette of a somewhat young man staring wistfully out of the window of a house once thought to have been forgotten. The fact that this knowledge was necessary, however, simultaneously assured and irked the man in question, though he knew that there was little that he could do to change this. Had it been about a decade earlier he would have been glad for the repose in his old family home, but the somber atmosphere was getting to him, and he wanted little more than a chance to get out and relieve his tension.<p>

The man, who went by the name of Sirius Black, frowned a bit as the source of the breeze that he could not feel came into view. A rather sizable blue box, seemingly made out of wood, had materialized in a way unfamiliar to Sirius. He had never seen such a strikingly insignificant object simply fade into existence in such a way. His apprehension and curiosity when the doors to this unknown blue box opened, and a man stepped out. This newcomer seemed to be a few years younger that Sirius himself, and also seemed to be of similar nature. The stranger was dressed rather oddly, as wizards generally did in an attempt to conceal themselves as Muggles. After all, Sirius knew of no Muggle that would dress in a brown pinstriped suit and a long overcoat. The man closed the door to his strange box behind him and stepped out onto the sunlit street.

Sirius watched in curiosity as the man's eyes swept across the rows of houses. All of Sirius's instincts were telling him that something was not quite right with this man, and there was a strange familiarity to this unknown face. Did Sirius know this man from somewhere? But then, as Sirius thought about it, this man looked an awful lot like…

Sirius nearly jumped up out of his chair when it hit him. This man was Barty Crouch Jr., the same Death Eater that had put Harry through all that pain in the boy's fourth year at Hogwarts. Blind, nearly insuppressible rage overtook Sirius for a moment, but before it could be released confusion settled in. The Dementors has already sucked out this man's soul, hadn't they? So what was Barty doing with his strange blue box, looking around where Twelve Grimmauld Place had been so expertly hidden?

When Sirius returned his attention to the issue at hand he noticed that Barty had begun to approach the house in which Sirius had concealed both himself and the meeting place of the Order. Sirius rose from his seat apprehensively. It was obvious from Barty's angle of approach that he was not moving towards the place where Eleven and Thirteen Grimmauld Place met, but Twelve Grimmauld Place itself. Somehow the Death Eater had gotten his hands on the information that concealed Sirius's childhood home. But Sirius knew that Dumbledore would not disclose the headquarters of the Order to anyone who had not proven themselves, and either way, Barty should not be able to even process such information in the first place.

The man named after a star withdrew his wand from his pocket as he watched Barty walk up the sidewalk and towards the door. Things were becoming quite unsettling for Sirius at this point. With one last worried glance out the window Sirius turned and Apparated down to the front hall. Sirius gripped his wand tightly in his fist just as an audible tapping emanated from the door. This befuddled Sirius to an even greater extent. Couldn't Barty just use _Alohamora_ to undo the lock, since he had already made it this far?

"I know you're home!" Sirius jumped a little at the voice. The accent seemed to be a little different, but it was Barty's voice all the same. "Come on, open up! I only want to have a word…"

Despite all of his instincts telling him to remain hidden, Sirius's curiosity was getting the better of him. He needed to know what was going on, and he needed to ensure that Barty could be secured again before the Death Eater went gallivanting off back to Voldemort. Hesitantly, Sirius stepped forward, wand at ready, and let the door open.

Sirius had his wand up before the door was fully open. "What do you want?" he barked, a growl forming in the back of his throat. But despite the threatening posture of the owner of the home, Barty seemed unfazed, and actually had an amiable smile plastered on his face.

"Like I said before, I only want to chat, or maybe have a nice cup of tea." Barty leaned back on his feet a bit and gazed around at the front of the house. "And I must say, you've got quite the impressive shielding on this place. Might I inquire as to why?"

"Oh, like you don't know," Sirius scoffed. He took a step forward, keeping his wand level with the stranger's face. "Might I ask why I would let the likes of you into my house? How'd you even find out about this place anyway?"

"I have my ways." Barty took a step forward as well, crossing into the house so that Sirius had to move his arm back a bit in order to keep it pointed at Barty without making contact. "And I can assure you that I'm very likely not the man you've mistaken me for."

"Really? Well, you do look exactly alike. What, did you use Polyjuice Potion or something?" Sirius's voice was derivative, and he still didn't believe that there was any reason to trust this man- Barty Crouch or not.

"I can assure you that I am within my own body and no one else's." The man paused for a moment. "Isn't there a spell to reveal humans near the user?"

"Yes, but-"

"Use it."

Sirius frowned for a moment. What was this man playing at? Still, he found no reason to deny this request. "_Homenum Revelio!_" Sirius whispered, waiting for the telltale signal that there was indeed another person in the room.

His wand didn't respond.

"The man you think me to be is human, is he not?" the strange, apparently alien man asked. "Your wand would have informed you if I fit that description."

Sirius found himself taking a step back. "But, how-" he began, before forcing his confusion and apprehension into the back of his mind and attempting to remain calm. "Show me your arm," he said, nodding towards the stranger's left arm.

The Barty look-a-like shuffled with his overcoat and suit for a few moments, but was able to pull up his sleeve and reveal the skin on his arm; the _bare _skin on his arm.

The two men met eyes for a moment. "No Dark Mark," Sirius whispered.

"No Dark Mark," the stranger affirmed. "Now, if you would be so kind as to let me in, I assure you that I can explain everything. And please lower that wand of yours."

Sirius sized up the man hesitantly for a moment. This man appeared not to be a threat, although there was never a way to be sure. The fact that Sirius had so many questions only helped sway his decision. Sirius knew that this was sure to be a decision he would regret later, but it wasn't like he hadn't made a thousand of those choices before.

"Alright. Come in. But no funny business, or you'll regret it."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **I think I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going with this, so the only thing left is to write it. I'll try to keep this moving as fast as I can, but knowing me I can't make any promises.

Enjoy Chapter Two!

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><p>"This had better be quick. Remus will be here soon and things would not turn out so well if he saw me talking with Barty Crouch Junior," Sirius said sternly, leading the stranger into the shadowed kitchen.<p>

"Didn't we just go over this? Look, I'm not this Barty bloke or whoever you're talking about," the stranger said, slightly exasperated.

"But no one else knows that. Hell, I don't think that I'm fully convinced myself. But either way you had better start explaining things." With a flick of his wand Sirius set the stove to warm up the half empty tea pot that Sirius had left there and motioned for the stranger to sit down.

"Where do you want me to start?" the man asked cheekily.

"Well, if you're not Barty Crouch, who exactly are you? And how did you find this place? Unless Dumbledore's told you the location of this place there should be no way that you could have made it here."

"Oh! Right, introductions. I'm called the Doctor," the Barty look-a-like began, but anything else that he might have said was cut off by a scoff from Sirius.

"'The Doctor'? What, like the Muggle version of a Healer? What kind of name is that?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "You should know that what someone is called does not necessarily have to be their name, _Padfoot_," he retorted.

Sirius's eyes widened. "How did you-"

"I know a great deal more than I let on. Far too much. But that happens to be beside the point."

Sirius frowned a bit. "Fine then. You're some knowledgeable guy who just happens to look exactly like one of Voldemort's most loyal followers. But why are you here? Did Dumbledore send you?"

"In all honesty I have never met the great Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, though I daresay that I would like to. Maybe once I've got all this sorted out-"

"So basically, you're saying that our Secret Keeper didn't disclose the location of our headquarters to you," Sirius summarized.

"In a stretch of the imagination, he has, but either way I think you'll find that your wards and enchantments do not quite work on one of my kind. I think the tea's done," the Doctor added after looking over to the steaming kettle.

Sirius flicked his wand sourly and let the tea pour itself into two cups, which set themselves down by the gentlemen.

"Right; on top of all the other crazy things you've got going for you, you're not even human!" Sirius's voice had begun to take on a rather exasperated tone. "And I don't know of any creatures that resemble humans so precisely. What exactly are you?"

"Time Lord," the Doctor answered simply. "And, as it turns out, we're not too incredibly different from wizards."

"Oh yeah? How so?"

The Doctor pursed his lips for a moment, as though unsure of how to explain. Finally, he took in a breath and asked, "What do you know of the origin of magic?"

Sirius frowned. "Not too much. The exact point where wizards separated from Muggles is unknown; it probably happened too long ago to have been recorded in history. Why do you ask?"

"Well then, I think it's time you got a bit of a history lesson." The Doctor paused, took a sip of his tea, and began speaking once more.

"The origin of magic in this world does transpire long before history could accurately record it, you were right about that. Back before true civilization began several small family groups discovered something rather odd to their eyes. Standing alone in fields or concealed in forests stood rather large stone arcs, which held up what was described as something similar to the surface of a flowing stream, though the ripples were colored instead of clear like water."

"Wait a minute, how do you know all of this?" Sirius interjected.

"I'll get to that later," the Doctor assured, before taking another sip of tea. "Anyway, these arcs were not new to this world; they had been there for a while, but only recently had been found."

"And what were these… arcs?"

"Breaches in time." Sirius's expression changed from uncertain curiosity to plain befuddlement. "You see, this world had been the center point of cracks in the fabric of time nearly since it formed. Abnormal quantities of temporal power would constantly leak out of any hole possible, and once released that power would latch onto certain genetic structures.

"How that power would be used, though, depends on the genetics. Many creatures developed strange qualities and evolved into entirely new, magical species. Some humans also received a dose of time, as it were, but they found ways to harness that power and use it in a much more controlled fashion."

"So, basically, you're saying," Sirius began reluctantly, "that whenever I cast a spell, I'm tapping into the power of time? Even when that spell has nothing to do with time at all?"

"Precisely." Sirius still looked stricken for a moment, but then shrugged slightly and took a sip of his tea. "It's a funny thing, time. Wherever you go it never quite works the same."

"And how do you fit into all of this?" Sirius inquired sharply, wanting to get straight to the point.

"My kind evolved in a way similar to wizards; we were exposed to raw time energy and adapted it into our biology. But while your adaptations were more diverse, my species had a more time-oriented approach." The Doctor paused, his mouth half open as if to go on, but then quickly changed the subject. "But the Time Lords aren't what matter in this case; it's you lot. Something doesn't feel quite right here-"

"Oh, like the fact that Voldemort's back, tried to kill my godson and is now setting out to conquer the entire world, magic and Muggle? I didn't need the likes of you to tell me that," Sirius interjected hotly.

"No, no, it's not that!" The Doctor shook his head. "I know of all of your troubles here and now, but I'm talking about something different; something that likely happened as the world of witchcraft and wizardry was just getting itself together."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

The Doctor's reply was cut off by footsteps emanating from the hall, and then a third figure entered the room that they were discussing inside of.

"I think I'd like to know that as well, along with everything else that's happened since I left," Remus said, his wand raised and pointed at the Doctor.


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, here's Chapter Three! The main plot should be picking up soon, so that's something to look forward to, I suppose. :)**

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><p>The Doctor let out an exasperated sigh and put his empty cup of tea down. "Why must everyone insist upon pointing their wands at me here?"<p>

"Remus! When did you get here?" Sirius asked, straightening a bit.

"A minute ago," Remus replied. "Sirius, might I ask why in the world you thought it would be a good idea to invite a Death Eater in for tea?"

"Why does everyone think that I'm a Death Eater? Do you _see_ the Mark on my arm?" The Doctor asked, rolling up his left sleeve for the second time in ten minutes and revealing his bare arm. "I doubt that Voldemort would be satisfied with letting any servant of his, past or present, walk away without the symbol of that servant's loyalty."

Remus narrowed his eyes in confusion. "And besides, you know as well as I do that Barty Crouch Junior received the Dementor's Kiss. How do you expect he could have recovered from that?" Sirius added.

"Then who is this guy?"

"That's what I've been trying to find out."

Remus frowned. "So you just let a complete stranger who just happens to be a duplicate of the man who put Harry through all that hell last year into the base of the Order?"

"Look, it's not like he would have even known about this place if Dumbledore hadn't told him, and while I may not necessarily trust the man sitting at the table, I do trust Dumbledore. I figured I'd hear him out and then decide what to do. Besides, I'm hardly unprepared for any funny business." Sirius waved his wand, which was resting loosely but securely in Sirius's hand.

"And what did he say?"

"Something about how magic comes from rifts in time and something is amiss in the past," summarized Sirius.

"Excuse me?" Remus asked incredulously, returning his gaze to the Doctor.

"Something along those lines," the Time Lord said, "but we can fill you in later. Look, I came here because I need your help. Something is happening in this world's past that should never have even started, and I don't have the resources to fix it alone."

"But why come to us for help? Why not go to some other wizard or witch who doesn't happen to be part of the Order of the Phoenix and busy trying to stop Voldemort before he regains power?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"Because you, Sirius, have a connection with one of the breaches in time that no other witch or wizard has. And I believe that such a link would be necessary to set things right," the Doctor replied after a few moments of consideration.

"I- what? Since when?" Sirius asked, shocked.

"I can't exactly explain it right now, Sirius, but I need your strength, and I can't get it from anyone else."

"And what's stopping you from explaining it?" Remus inquired.

"If I say the wrong thing it could alter your futures in a terrible way, and I'd rather not risk something like that happening." The Doctor sighed. "So what do you say?"

Sirius and Remus exchanged a glance.

"And how do we know this isn't a trap?" inquired Remus, raising an eyebrow. "Why are we supposed to trust you and believe that this isn't some convoluted scheme to imprison Sirius and do who knows what to him?"

"Have I given you any reason not to trust me?" the Doctor replied.

"Well, the fact that you look just like Barty Crouch Junior isn't helping your case at all," Sirius pointed out.

"Oh, so now you lot are judging on appearances rather than actions? Look," the Doctor said, slightly exasperated, "there's every reason for you to be skeptical. But other than the fact that I look like an enemy of you two, I haven't given you any reason for you to mistrust me enough not to at least consider my request for help. And it's not like I could really do anything to hurt you. I haven't got a wand and I'm not exactly a wizard in the first place. Otherwise I would try to fix this myself. But I can't, and I'm afraid that if you won't, something much worse than Voldemort will end up reigning over this land." The Doctor's voice was almost pleading as he left the Marauders with those points to consider.

Sirius and Remus locked eyes for a few crucial moments.

"I still think it could be a trap," Remus mused.

The Doctor sagged a bit.

"And what if it's not?" reasoned Sirius, and the Time Lord perked up again. "Are you really willing to risk losing a war before we even get a chance to fight it? Wait-" Sirius turned back to the Doctor. "What exactly would we be fighting?"

"A force quite similar to that of Voldemort, but possibly much more dangerous."

"And do you want _that _taking control of our world?" Remus shook his head. "Neither do I, and that's all that really matters, isn't it?" Ignoring the slight glare in his friend's eyes, Sirius turned back to the Doctor. "I don't know about Moony here, but I'm in. Just let me know what I have to do and I'll do my best to help save the world."

The Doctor grinned. "Good. Remus?"

Two pairs of eyes looked to the werewolf expectantly. Remus sighed in resignation. "I suppose someone has to keep this idiot from getting himself killed."

"Excellent!" The Doctor stood. "Shall we get going?"

"What? Now?" Sirius asked, shocked.

Remus was also befuddled, albeit for a different reason. "Wait, you said that this was happening in the past? Well how are we going to get there? Time Turners don't go back farther than a week and I'm sure whatever you're talking about happened long before that time frame."

"Oh, don't worry about that," assured the Doctor, striding across the room and edging his way past Remus. "I've got more diverse means of time travel. Now c'mon, you lot, we'd best be going!"

Exchanging one last uncertain look, the Marauders shrugged and followed the Time Lord back out into the hallway. The Doctor bounced on the balls of his feet for a moment before reaching behind him and pulling the door open. The three men walked out into the open sunlight, and Sirius closed the door behind them.

"Where exactly are we headed?" Remus asked, looking up and down the otherwise empty street.

"Not too far," replied the Doctor, bounding off towards the other side of the road. Sirius realized a moment later that they were headed for the mysterious blue box the strange man had arrived in. Confusion welled up again- how could that thing be capable of time travel?

The two wizards and the Time Lord walked the several yards between Number 12 and the phone box, with the Doctor leading cheerfully and the werewolf and the Animagus following a tad reluctantly.

"Wait," Remus began, raising his eyebrows, "Do you mean to tell me that this police box is going to take us to where we need to go?"

"That's the idea!" the Doctor confirmed cheerfully. A key was removed from the Time Lord's pocket and inserted into a small lock. In a moment one of the blue doors creaked open a crack, and the Doctor pushed it fully ajar.

Sirius peered into the space before him, and hesitantly stepped inside. Remus followed swiftly, and the Doctor closed and locked the door behind them before bounded up towards the central console.

"Impressive," Sirius mused, staring around at the wide room before him. "Now _this_ is what I call a time machine."

Remus took a glance around and walked up to where the Doctor was pressing buttons and pulling levers on the central mechanism. "So what exactly is this?"

"This, my friends, is the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It'll be our lift to where we need to go and our sort of base of operations. I'll save the full tour for later."

"So there's more to this place?" Sirius asked, his voice not disbelieving but more excited at the prospect.

"Of course there is!" The Doctor paused, his hand over one last lever. "Are you two ready to set off? The TARDIS is a bit… temperamental, and once we leave I'm not sure if she'll let us go back before we fix what needs to be fixed."

"I signed up for this, didn't I? I'm ready," Sirius affirmed, leaning casually on one of the railings.

Remus shook his head a bit. "It still sounds like a trap to me, but if Sirius is willing to go then I guess I will too."

"Excellent! _Molto bene!" _The Doctor grinned and pulled the last lever, and the TARDIS gave an almighty lurch, and the two wizards had to grab the nearest railing firmly in order to stay on their feet.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: **Wow, this took longer than I expected it to! So sorry it took so long, some of the scenes took a while to figure out how to do right, and it's been a bit difficult to find the time to actually type it up. This chapter was actually going to be a bit longer but I wanted to get someting up before I was swamped by end of the year testing and all that (which also means that this is hasn't been beta'd, so I apologiz for any mistakes).

I should probably say that it might be a whil before the next chapter comes out; I want to spend some time to finish sketching out all of the major plot details before we actually get to that part of the story, and then I'll have a chapte to write. I have no idea how long it'll take but hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace once summer rolls around.

It would also probably be worth mentioning that due to the fact that I'm exploring territory that I don't know a great deal about, this might end up being slightly AU-ish, but I'll try to stick to cannon as much as possible.

Enjoy!

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><p>"Are you sure that this is safe?" yelled Remus over the whirring of the TARDIS engines.<p>

"Of course it is!" replied the Doctor, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. The Doctor was the only one of the three who was still steady on his feet, and was bouncing around, fiddling with a few of the knobs and dials on the console. "And… we're there!"

With one last great lurch the shaking and movement of the machine ceased, and the two wizards relinquished their holds on the railings.

"God, I never knew that time travel was so… rough," Sirius commented, straightening.

The Doctor placed a hand on the large cylinder in the center of the control panel. "I suppose she hasn't quite gotten used to the time stream in this world. She usually flies a lot smoother than she just did," he said cryptically. Remus looked at the Doctor quizzically, not quite sure of what the man meant, but said nothing.

The Doctor quickly made his way to the doors and beckoned for the two wizards to join him. "Well then, shall we get down to business?"

"Where exactly are we, anyway?" The TARDIS doors had opened and the travelers had stepped out when Remus put forward the question.

The room was lit with a sort of pale white light, but the dark floors and walls gave the space an eerie shadowed atmosphere. The room was high ceilinged, and several steps descended towards a raised platform in the center of the room, not unlike seats rising up from a central stage. And on that platform stood a majestic, old fashioned archway, seemingly supporting the rippling of distorted that stretched between the stone boundaries. Sirius felt almost as if they were intruding upon some dark, unknowable secret, and yet he also felt as though he was being welcomed home after a long departure.

"Yeah, what is this place?"

"This," the Doctor said with a sort of flourish, taking a few steps down towards the foreboding archway, "is where one of the few known Temporal Archways is being kept and studied. And here Padfoot will gain full access to the unique powers that he has stumbled upon."

"And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" Sirius asked, his gaze sweeping over the room. His eyes crossed Remus's, which were asking how the Doctor knew of Sirius's old nickname. Sirius gave the smallest of shrugs before speaking.

"That, my friend, is something that I will leave to you."

"You mean you don't know?"

"I never said that!" protested the Doctor. "But I've never quite been in this situation before, so I wouldn't know. Do you expect me to know everything?"

"No, but we did expect you to at least know enough to get us to where we actually need to be to fix whatever's gone wrong," Remus retorted. His gaze flitted down to where the archway stood, and a small frown creased his face. "Sirius?"

The Animagus had made his way down towards the dais and was now standing in front of the stone arc. "This feels… familiar to me somehow. I can't quite explain it, but…" Sirius reached out a hand and let his fingers brush the surface of the shimmering veil of silver. The areas where his fingers made contact glowed a bright, vivacious blue.

A sudden rush of sensations and images overtook him, and Sirius withdrew his hand with a yelp. Remus's eyes widened and he moved forward to join his fellow Marauder, but the Doctor extended and arm to hold the werewolf back. "Sirius needs to figure this out on his own," the Time Lord whispered.

Sirius simply looked at the arc for a few moments, before realizing that he had just done what he needed to do. His right hand reached down and grasped his wand while his left moved forward one more. He made contact with the veil once more, but this time laid his entire palm on the rippling space.

The energy rushed into him for the second time, with more force than before, but this time Sirius knew what to expect. His fingers contracting, he sifted through the images assaulting his conscious and focused more on the power that was forcing them through. The tip of his wand suddenly sparked and glowed seemingly all of the colors at once and yet looking as though it weren't lit at all. After a few moments of this the wood began emitting wisps of a soft, yellow smoke-like illumination.

Sirius began feeling the harshness of the energy recede and become more gentle and welcoming. The Animagus felt the temporal power begin merging with his own magic, and he found himself welcoming it more gladly than he once would have expected. After a heartbeat his vision was clouded by the same wispy light that his wand was letting off, and he decided to stop whatever was happening before it overtook him more than necessary. Sirius fluidly withdrew his hand and took several steps back, abruptly gasping for breath.

"What just-" he began breathily, before collapsing.

"Sirius!" The Doctor did not bother holding Remus back this time as the wizard's feet cascaded down the steps towards his best friend. "Merlin, what did you have him _do?" _he yelled at the Doctor, who had swiftly followed the werewolf's path.

"He just needs to rest while he adjusts to the sudden influx of power. He'll be fine in a little while," assured the Doctor, as Remus bent over Sirius to check his pulse. All appeared to be normal with the Marauder, other than the fact that he was unconscious.

"If you say so." Remus was completely unsure of how to react to what had just happened. He had seen the way that the curtain suspended by the archway had merged onto Sirius's hand and how its energy visibly flowed into the wizard. Sirius's wand had begun to expel a similar sort of light, and Padfoot seemed to radiate power and knowledge in the moments before he stepped back and collapsed. For the moment, Remus settled on making sure that his friend would be alright before figuring out the larger consequences of what had just transpired.

"C'mon, let's get him into the TARDIS. There should be a spare bed where he can rest and I daresay it might not be best to linger here for too long."

Remus swung Sirius's right arm over his shoulder and waited for the Doctor to get Sirius's left. The Time Lord paused for a moment before walking around the duo and retrieving Sirius's wand, which had clattered to the floor. The Doctor handed the wand back to Remus, who took it in his right hand, before the Time Lord reached down and grabbed Sirius's left arm, and the two men hoisted their fallen friend upright.

"Easy does it, now," the Doctor murmured as they began the careful process of bringing Sirius back up the incline to where the TARDIS was standing proud. A minute and a twist of a key later, the Time Lord and the wizard pushed the doors opened and entered the TARDIS's warm glow.

Remus might have imagined it, but he could have sworn that he felt some sort of pulse ripple through the TARDIS as they crossed the threshold, but any trace of this strange welcome faded moments after. Leaving Remus to support the unconscious Sirius on his own, the Doctor dashed up to the central console and began working with the machinery. A few lever pulls and one great lurch later the Doctor was back with the wizards.

"I've got her drifting through the Time Vortex for now," the Doctor explained as he guided behind the console and down a corridor that Remus had not bothered to notice before."Don't want us to stay where we might not be welcome. Now, right through here there should be a place suitable for Sirius to rest in…"

They passed a few doors before the Doctor seemed to locate the right one. Opening the door, the Time Lord led the way inside. The walls were draped in red and gold, the floors covered in a lush, grass-like carpet, and the deep blue ceiling was a representation of a star-speckled sky. Beside the Gryffindor-colored bed stood a table supporting a glass of water and an intricate frame containing a lively photo of the seventh year Marauders, laughing and joking as they once had. Remus felt a mixture of remorse, nostalgia, bitterness and longing as he stared at all of his friends and himself. In one corner of the room an ornate desk lay pristine and ready for use. Across from the bed was an average dresser; nothing too spectacular. Remus could tell that this was a room in which Sirius would not object staying.

The conscious duo laid their unconscious companion gently down on the bed. Remus looked at the fallen Marauder worriedly for a few moments, and didn't notice the Doctor making to leave until the man's voice emanated from where the door was.

"I think I'd best leave you to your own devices for the time being." Somewhat startled, Remus jumped and whirled around to where the Doctor was standing casually in the doorway. "You might want to take a look around; we'll be staying here for a while and you'd best get acquainted with this place." With that, the Doctor was gone.

Remus took another glance at Sirius, who appeared peaceful enough. Assured that his friend would be fine for a while, Remus made his leave.

The werewolf frowned a bit as he closed his friend's door. The other doors seemed to have shifted in his absence. He shrugged to himself, having encountered stranger things in his time, and began walking, not entirely sure where he was headed. A quarter of a minute Remus spent in the hallway before opening the first door he happened across.

The crisp smell of parchment hit his senses before his eyes caught up with the scene. The library was quite large, though Remus had been in more sizable ones during his life. Yet as Remus began walking he realized that many of the books seemed foreign to his eyes. In fact, he recognized very few of the titles at all. Remus ran his finger over a few of the books' spines, making a mental note to return to this library should he ever find himself with a free moment. With an appreciative semi-smile, Remus made his way back out into the hallway.

The next room the former teacher found himself in was another bedroom. In this room, however, the starry sky reached down the walls towards a forest landscape. The bed had an orange and purple bedspread, and the desk seemed much better stocked than his friend's was. Suspended in one upper corner was a realistic replica of a crescent moon. Remus had an inkling that this room was his, but either was the moon reminded him of something of which he needed to ask. Further down the hallway Remus encountered a door not made of wood, as the other doors were, but instead it seemed to be a sort of stained glass. Cautiously, Remus made his way inside.

His feet hit soil and foliage instead of carpet or granite. A gentle light shone through the leafy canopy of the strangely familiar forest the room seemed to contain. Walking, awestruck, though the wood, Remus noticed a figure sitting on a ledge several yards away. A few steps closer and Remus realized that it was the Doctor.

The man in question looked up as Remus drew closer. "Ah, Remus, how good of you to join me! Come, sit down!" Remus paused a moment before joining the Doctor on the small cliff that dropped down to more of the wood.

"Nice place, isn't it?"

"You've got a forest in a time machine." Remus stated this with a sort of casual disbelief, as though any other time he would be fully skeptical but had seen enough over the past day that he wasn't as surprised as he should have been.

"Sometimes even I'm surprised with what this place comes up with," the Doctor mused. There was a pause. "Did you want to see me about something?"

"Actually, yes, I did," Remus replied, somewhat startled that the Doctor knew his intentions so well, but decided it wasn't worth asking about. "I was wondering, how long is this going to take?"

"I'm not entirely sure, I must say. It could be a day, it could be a month, or longer. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, well, I-"

"Afraid your lycanthropy will make things much more complicated?" the Doctor asked knowingly.

Remus was taken aback. "How did you-"

"Like I told your friend, I know a whole lot more than I let on."

"Well, that's great and all, but we still have a problem on our hands. I don't believe that we have any way of procuring Wolfsbane potion; without it I won't have any control over myself."

"Don't worry, my fine friend." The Doctor put a comforting hand on Remus's shoulder. "Should the full moon come around you can weather it out in here. And, although this is but a theory, I daresay that the full moon will not have any effect on you in my ship."

"Is that even possible?" Remus had not heard of a werewolf avoiding transformation on the night of the full moon.

"Like I said, this is only a guess. But the TARDIS has all kinds of shielding and the like. I doubt that moon will have much of an effect here. And even if it does, you can wait out the transformation in one of these rooms."

"Well, let's hope it won't be an issue at all."

* * *

><p>Sirius found his eyes opening to a starry sky. The star he was named for seemed to be glowing brightest of them all. Sirius lay there thinking for a few moments before his memory caught up with him and he shot forward.<p>

The last thing he could recall was the feeling of the strange magic flowing into and through him. So how did he end up in the Gryffindor-colored, starry-ceiling bedroom? What had happened to Remus and the Doctor?

Sirius's gaze darted about, looking for his wand, which he quickly found on a bedside table, sitting next to a haunting picture of the Marauders in their prime. Sirius locked eyes with each of his companions for a moment, unsure of what to think of the photograph. Then, removing himself from the memories of the past, Sirius tightened his grip on his wand before leaping off the bed and setting out.

The Animagus paused outside his room for but a few moments before swiftly taking a right, not bothering to wonder how he seemed to know where to go. He passed several doors without a thought before he came across an entryway with tendrils of gray smoke wafting through the cracks. Unsure of what he would find, Sirius twisted the knob and stepped through the doorway.


End file.
